Ingredient

Beetroot

Beetroot boiled is watery and faintly muddy. Roasted whole in its skin, it concentrates into something dense, sweet and earthy — and the difference is larger than for almost any other root vegetable.

Why whole and in its skin

Beetroot is full of water-soluble sugars and pigments. Cut it up and boil it and both leach into the water, which is why boiled beetroot is pale, watery and disappointing while the cooking water is bright red.

Roasting it whole with the skin on keeps everything inside. The water evaporates slowly through the skin, the sugars concentrate, and the flesh goes dense and intensely flavoured. The skin then slips off easily once it is cool enough to handle.

Wrap them in foil if they are large or you want them steamed-soft; roast them naked on a tray if you want the edges to caramelise. An hour or more at 190°C, until a knife goes in with no resistance.

Ways to use it

• Roasted whole, then peeled and quartered, dressed while warm with vinegar, oil and salt. The dressing goes in far better while hot.
• Roasted in wedges at a high heat with oil, for caramelised edges.
• Raw and grated into a salad, with apple, carrot, lemon and horseradish. Bright and completely different from cooked.
• Puréed into a soup or a dip, with yoghurt, cumin and lemon.
• Pickled — sliced and steeped in spiced vinegar. Keeps for months.
• The leaves cooked like chard: stems sliced and cooked first, leaves wilted after. They are good and they are usually thrown away.

The earthy taste, and balancing it

Where it comes from

A compound called geosmin, which is the same thing that makes rain on dry soil smell as it does. Some people are far more sensitive to it than others.

Acid

Vinegar, lemon or a sharp dressing cuts it more effectively than anything else. This is why beetroot is so often pickled.

Fat and dairy

Goat's cheese, feta, yoghurt, soured cream, crème fraîche. The classic pairings, and they work for this reason.

Sweetness

Orange, apple and balsamic all lean into it rather than fighting it.

Strong aromatics

Horseradish, dill, caraway, cumin and mustard all stand up to it.

Practical points

• Wear gloves, or accept stained hands for a day. The pigment washes off skin eventually and stains wooden boards permanently — use a plastic one.
• Do not trim the root or the very top before cooking. Cutting into the beetroot lets the colour and sugar bleed out.
• Leave about 2cm of stalk on. Same reason.
• Cooked beetroot keeps a week in the fridge and freezes well once cooked.
• Beetroot can colour urine and stools pink. It is harmless and startling if you are not expecting it.
• Golden and candy-striped beetroot cook identically and do not stain. The striped ones lose their pattern when cooked, so use them raw.

Common questions